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College of Cultural Sciences Announces Results for 6th Best Paper Award
The College of Cultural Sciences cohosts with the EFL Program the Best Paper Award each semester. The Best Paper Awards went to Jo Hyeong Chan and Oh Shin Ah undergraduate students. The Best Paper Award was established in 2009 in order to encourage and improve the English writing skills of undergraduate students.
The College of Humanities and Social Sciences opened up 69 English courses in Spring of 2012 and 14 papers were recommended by the respective professors as ‘best papers’. Out of these papers 2 were selected for First Prize and 4 were selected as Honorable Mentions. The two recipients’ papers were recommended by Professor Park Woo Seok (Topics in Philosophy).
2012.10.16 View 7000 -
1st Korean Certified Fund Raising Executive
Ms. Kim Hyun Soo (KAIST Development Foundation) has become the 1st Korean Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE).
Ms. Kim received an email from International Certified Fund Raising Committee indicating that she had passed the CFRE program and that she was the 1st Korean to do so.
CFRE is an internationally certified fund raising expert and there are 5,322 members worldwide working in various universities, hospitals, and non-profit organizations.
Ms. Kim majored in Science of Public Administration (Yonsei University) as B.A. and International Cooperation (Seoul National University) as Masters. She passed the Accounting Exam in the United States and tried to do something worthwhile rather than blindly chasing higher pay.
Ms. Kim played a crucial part in raising record funds in KAIST history since she started in 2006. She commented that she always was interested in non-profit organizations and their role in society and that KAIST allowed her to fulfill both of her two dreams.
2012.10.16 View 7115
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2012 Intellectual Property Rights Award Ceremony Held
The 2012 Intellectual Property Rights Award Ceremony was held at Seoul KAIST Campus.
Recipients of the award included former congressmen Kim Young Sun and Lee Jeong Hyuk, and Kim Boo Kyung researcher at Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute also representing Vooz Ltd. that created the character POOCA.
The Intellectual Property Rights Award is given to an individual or a group that succeeded in utilizing, protecting, creating, and establishment of its foundation including patent, copyright, and brand. Intellectual Property Rights is viewed as of importance for future national competitiveness.
The Award is organized by the Korea Patent Attorneys Association, the Korea Association of Intellectual Property Services, and KAIST and are respectively core institutions in the training of Intellectual Property Rights Experts and the creation, utilization, and the protection of intellectual property.
In addition the Award is also co-organized by the KAIST Graduate School of Intellectual Property Rights (established in cooperation with KAIST and the Korean Intellectual Property Office) and the total 20 million Won of prize money is funded by Korea Institute of Intellectual Strategy and Kim Ok Lan Foundation.
The Award Ceremony was held with a special lecture by the recipients.
It was stressed that the evaluation process was carried out with that the decision is a silent message to the society and is also a type of market signal.
Director Ko Gi Seok (Presidential Council on Intellectual Property) revealed that the candidates’ impact on the strength of national intellectual property rights was thoroughly scrutinized.
In the criteria of Creation of Intellectual Property, ETRI received the award in recognition of the institution’s successful patenting and commercializing of products of Korean R&D.
ETRI created a total of 251 International Patents in cooperation with ITU, ISO, IEE, etc. and also participated in a total of 9 International Standard Patent Pool, showing its active Intellectual Property management.
Such efforts ranked ETRI 1st in the United States Patent Evaluation performed by the US Patent Board in 2011 out of 237 institutions.
In addition Recipient of the Intellectual Property Utilization criteria, VOOZ ltd.’s Kim Boo Kyung promised the free use of their character POOCA in ETRI’s automated Korean-English translator. Researcher Kim Boo Kyung was rewarded with the award in recognition of his contribution to the domestic economy and realization of the commercialization of a copy right through licensing.
Former congressman Kim Young Son received an Award in the Foundation criteria in recognition of his efforts in the establishment of the Presidential Council on Intellectual Property and the Basic Blueprints for the Intellectual Property Law.
Former congressman Lee Jeong Hyuk received the same award in recognition of standardization and streamlining Intellectual Property Rights Policies. His realization and pursuit of the establishment of a balanced growth based on law for the competitiveness of businesses was the driving force behind his accomplishments.
2012.10.16 View 10210
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DNA based semiconductor technology developed
Professor Park Hyun Gyu’s research team from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at KAIST has successfully implemented all logic gates using DNA, a feat that led the research to be published as the cover paper for the international nanotechnology paper "Small".
Even with the latest technology, it was impossible to create a silicon based semiconductor smaller than 10nm, but because DNA has a thickness of only 2nm, this could lead to the creation of semiconductors with groundbreaking degrees of integration.
A 2 nm semiconductor will be able to store 10,000 HD movies within a size of a postage stamp, at least 100 times more than the current 20nm semiconductors.
DNAs are comprised of 4 bases which are continually connected: Adenine (A) with Thymine (T), and Guanine (G) with Cytosine (C).
For this research, the team used the specific binding properties of DNA, which forms its helix-shape, and a circular molecular beacon that has fluorescent signaling properties under structural changes.
The research team used input signals to open and close the circular DNA, the same principle that is applied to logic gates in digital circuits.
The output signal was measured using the increase and decrease of the fluorescent signal from the molecular beacon due to the opening and closing of the circular DNA respectively.
The team overcame the limited system problems of the existing logic gates and managed to implement all 8 logic gates (AND, OR, XOR, INHIBIT, NAND, NOR, XNOR, IMPlCATION). A multilevel circuit that connects different logic gates was also tested to show its regenerative properties.
Professor Park said that “cheap bio-electric devices with high degrees of integration will be made possible by this research” and that “there will be a large difference in the field of molecular level electronic research”
Mr. Park Gi Su, a doctoral candidate and the 1st author of this research, said that “a DNA sequence of 10 bases is only 3.4nm long and 2nm thick, which can be used to effectively increase the degree of integration of electronic devices” and that “a bio computer could materialize in the near future through DNA semiconductors with accurate logic gates”.
XOR Gate: The output signal 1 comes through the open circular DNA when either input DNA A or input DNA B is present. When both inputs are not present, the flourescent signal does not come through
2012.09.27 View 9056 -
Professor Moon Song Chun appointed representative director of European IT society
Professor Moon Song Chun from the College of business at KAIST was appointed as the representative director of Asia for the European IR society EUROMICRO at its 35th general meeting in Lille, France.
Professor Moon is highly regarded in his work in popularization of IT in 3rd world countries and has published the largest number of papers in the history of EUROMICRO. For the next two years, Professor Moon will work to introduce Asia’s IT capabilities to the world and to increase the recognition of the society in the region.
Professor Moon, who is also known as the first Computer Science Doctor (PhD) in Korea, has worked to popularize IT by initiating IT volunteer services in Africa, the Middle East, Central and South America, South East Asia and Eastern Europe. He has also helped in the recognition of Korea’s IT capacity, working as a Korean Delegate for the UN International Y2K Cooperation Center, a Distinguished Scholar at Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and a Visiting Scholar at Cambridge University.
2012.09.25 View 8199
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Anonymous philanthropist donates 5.5 billion won to KAIST
An unnamed philanthropist donated a large sum of money to KAIST to be used as funds for the school"s development.
On September 6th, the donor met with President Suh to donate a sum of 5.5 billion won to the school for the development of science and technology.
A KAIST representative announced that the donor did not want to be named and that he was greatly impressed by President Suh"s and KAIST"s efforts towards reformation. The philanthropist wanted the donation to be used for research funds and financial aid.
President Suh said that "KAIST was deeply thankful and that it would work harder to show fulfill the donor"s wishes" and that the money would indeed be used for research and the students.
This was the 6th largest donation since the start of President Suh"s post in July 2006. Since 2006, the accumulated KAIST development fund has increased 30 times, from 5.9 billion won at the end of 2006 to 180 billion won in September 2012.
2012.09.24 View 6729
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Distinguished Professor Lee Sang Yeop Appointed as Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers
Professor Lee Sang Yeop (Dean of the Department of Biological Sciences) has become the first Korea Scientist to be appointed as the Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.
The American Institute of Chemical Engineers was founded in 1908 and boasts a 100 year history. It is composed of 43,000 members over 90 countries and is the largest international Academic Institute in the field of Chemical Engineering.
The Institute appoints Fellows after a rigorous procedure of recommendation and evaluation and Professor Lee is the first Korean to become a Fellow.
Professor Lee’s expertise is the field of Metabolic Engineering and successfully applied the system design method and optimization strategy of chemical engineering to biological systems thereby developing numerous core technologies for the biology based chemical industries.
Professor Lee is the founder of the System Metabolic Engineering and enabled the medical application of microorganisms by manipulating the metabolic pathways on a systems level in addition to making great progress in synthesizing various oil originated chemical materials using biology based, environmentally friends methods.
Professor Lee received the Marvin J. Johnson Award, Charles Thom Award, and has been appointed by the first Chairman of the Biotech Global Agenda Counsel of the World Economic Forum.
2012.09.22 View 8320
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KAIST 63rd in 2012 QS World University Ranking
KAIST was ranked 63rd in the 2012 World University Ranking conducted by British University Ranking Institution Quacquarelli Symonds.
The result is an all-time high for KAIST and a quantum leap of 135 places from 198th in 2006.
The criteria are: Student Evaluation (40%), Industry Evaluation (10%), Dissertation Citation per Professor (20%), Professor to Student Ratio (20%), Ratio of Foreign Students (5%), and Professor Ratio (5%).
The most notable improvement was in the ‘Academic Reputation’ criteria where KAIST scored 85.1 points and recorded 68th in the world, an improvement of 17 places from last year.
The Engineering College was ranked 24th, Natural Science College was ranked 48th, Biological Science College was ranked 110th, demonstrating that KAIST has now been established as a world class research oriented university.
The 2012 QS World University Ranking ranked MIT as the best university in the world followed by Cambridge, Harvard, ULC, and Oxford.
Domestically Seoul National University was ranked highest at 37th followed by KAIST (63rd), POSTECH (97th), Yonsei University (112th), Korea University (137th), and Sungkyunkwan University (179th) in the top 200 places.
2012.09.22 View 9069
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KAIST Alumni Association Hosts 1st Annual Mentoring Concert
KAIST Alums begin the management of a mentoring program for the benefit of worrying KAIST students.
President of KAIST Alumni Association will host on the 22nd of September the 1st Annual Mentoring Concert from 2pm to 8pm.
The Mentoring Concert was hosted in response to the Student Government Survey that enquired to the students of KAIST the type of help they’d like from Alumni.
The Alumni Association expanded its Goodwill Café program into the Mentoring Concert in order to improve the connection between the students and the alumni.
The Concert is composed of eight sessions (Academia, Industry, Government Institute, Consulting, Finance, Venture I, Venture II) and will involve 40 mentors and 400 mentees.
Each session will be attended by 5 mentors and 50 mentees and each mentor will give a ten minute presentation on the value of life, work experience, and their catalysis for choice of vocation.
KAIST Alumni Association stated that the Online Mentor System is under construction which will allow KAIST students to directly email mentors.
2012.09.22 View 6091
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Lee Su Young President of Gwang Won Industries Donates Real Estate worth 7 Million USD
On the 14th of September Lee Su Young President of Gwang Won Industries (since 1988) donated her entire personal real estate in Los Angeles worth 7 million USD.
President Lee commented that “the strength of Science and Technology is the strength behind the development of Korea and I am certain that KAIST is the driving force” and the she “wishes to help out on the nurture of excellent intellectuals”.
“I have led a frugal life, working hard and buying real estate in America. Wealth is not something that you can take beyond death so I always spent rationally in order to return my accumulated wealth back to society. I pondered what would be best for the development of Korea and without a moment’s hesitation I chose KAIST.”
President Lee was touched by the drive for innovation by President Seo and the members of KAIST working day and night for the development of KAIST.
“It was very moving to see a world renowned scholar like President Seo working tirelessly for the past six years to resurrect and develop KAIST. If KAIST continues to develop at such a pace then I am sure that KAIST will become a world class university. Donating to KAIST was sure to be equivalent to donating the Korea.”
President Lee led a life more frugal and most and yet she did not have even a moment’s hesitation in donating her entire fortune.
“My only wish is to see my donation help the students of KAIST with their studies. What more could I expect from them if they become outstanding servants of Korea.”
President Lee graduated from Gyungi Girl’s High School and majored Law in Seoul National University and worked as a newspaper reporter from 1963 to 1980.
She is the President of Gwang Won Industries which began as Gwang Won Ranch in 1971, and is also the Head Board Member at Seoul National University’s Scholarship Foundation for the College of Law.
The donation will be used to fund the ‘KAIST-Lee Su Young International Education Program’ which encompasses the currently under test Education 3.0 program which will allow for the next generation student led education system using multimedia services.
2012.09.22 View 7174
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Professor Soon-Heung Chang meets with Bill Gates and discusses possible collaboration
Professor Soon-Heung Chang from the Department of Nuclear and Quantum Engineering, KAIST, who is also the president of Korea Nuclear Society (KNS), met Bill Gates, the co-founder and former chief executive officer (CEO) of Microsoft, on August 16, 2012 and discussed ways to cooperate for the development of a sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR), a next generation nuclear power reactor.
According to Professor Chang, Bill Gates was amazed at Korea’s successful bids for nuclear power plants in the United Arab Emirates, even though Korea was a latecomer in the field of nuclear power. Bill Gates also showed a keen interest in Korea’s low electricity rates.
Gates focuses on solving fundamental problems in order to help improve the quality of life for humanity, rather than short-term temporary solutions, through infrastructure development such as energy. Particularly, he considers nuclear power as one of the most effective ways to supply clean energy which can provide electricity at a low cost while keeping carbon dioxide emission levels much lower than fossil fuels.
Bill Gates is a primary investor for an energy company called “TerraPower” based in Bellevue, Washington. TerraPower develops and commercializes nuclear power technology for a traveling wave reactor (TWR) that is designed to use spent fuels, i.e., depleted uranium, and runs technically “forever” because once fueled, the reactor does not need to be refueled for over 50 years. TerraPower’s TWR is to use metallic fuel, and Korea is the only country that currently develops SFR (KALIMER 600) using metallic fuel.
“Korea has an outstanding supply chain for the entire lifecycle of a nuclear power station from equipment manufacturing to operation,” said Professor Chang, while emphasizing the synergistic effects of forming partnership between Korea and TerraPower.
Professor Chang emphasized that Korea should create an opportunity based on lessons learned from the Fukushima crisis and actively move forward to achieve its leading position in the field of next generation nuclear reactors. He said that cooperation with Bill Gates will be a significant step towards the development of next generation nuclear reactors.
About Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor (SFR)
Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor (SFR) is a next-generation nuclear power reactor that will use spent fuels from conventional reactors. Arrangement of a fuel recycling system in
conjunction with currently-developing pyroprocessing technology would enable U-238, which makes up over 99% of natural uranium, to be used as a nuclear fuel. This would greatly reduce the toxicity and volume of spent fuels by up to 1,000 times and 100 times respectively when compared to existing reactors. This is truly a breakthrough innovation in spent fuel disposal and recycling.
2012.09.20 View 10001 -
Professor Yoon Dong Ki becomes first Korean to Receive the Michi Nakata Prize
Professor Yoon Dong Ki (Graduate School of Nano Science and Technology) became the first Korean to receive the Michi Nakata Prize from the International Liquid Crystal Society.
The Awards Ceremony was held on the 23rd of August in Mainz, Germany in the 24th Annual International Liquid Crystal Conference.
The Michi Nakata Prize was initiated in 2008 and is rewarded every two years to a young scientist that made a ground breaking discovery or experimental result in the field of liquid crystal. Professor Yoon is the first Korean recipient of the Michi Nakata Prize.
Professor Yoon is the founder of the patterning field that utilizes the defect structure formed by smectic displays. He succeeded in large scale patterning complex chiral nano structures that make up bent-core molecules.
Professor Yoon’s experimental accomplishment was published in the Advanced Materials magazine and the Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. and also as the cover dissertation of Liquid Crystals magazine.
Professor Yoon is currently working on Three Dimensional Nano Patterning of Supermolecular Liquid Crystal and is part of the World Class University organization.
2012.09.11 View 11256